#francis weller

[askyea-poesy]

The work of a mature human being is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other, and to be stretched large by these two things.

Francis Weller

[starlitbeetle]

"What we perceive as defective about ourselves, we also experience as loss. Whenever any portion of who we are is denied, we live in a condition of loss. The proper response to any loss is grief, but we cannot grieve for something that we feel is outside the circle of worth."

--Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow (2015)

[randomfoggytiger]

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.

- Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow-Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

By Francis Weller.

[allallestodo]

The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.

— Francis Weller

ViA

[scorpionsonder]

“Grief is subversive, undermining quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small.”

— Francis Weller

[innervoiceartblog]

"We were not meant to live shallow lives, pocked by meaningless routines and the secondary satisfactions of happy hour. We are the inheritors of an amazing lineage, rippling with memories of life lived intimately with bison and gazelle, raven and the night sky. We are designed to encounter this life with amazement and wonder, not resignation and endurance. This is at the very heart of our grief and sorrow. The dream of full-throated living, woven into our very being, has often been forgotten and neglected, replaced by a societal fiction of productivity and material gain. No wonder we seek distractions. Every sorrow we carry extends from the absence of what we require to stay engaged in this one wild and precious life".

~ Francis Weller

[fenblight]